Fruit? In beer? What the hell is going on with my pint?

Fruit? In beer? What the hell is going on with my pint?

Visitors to any of our four brewpubs might have noticed a few fruit infused beers on the bar in recent months.

Visitors to any of our four brewpubs might have noticed a few fruit infused beers on the bar in recent months. We’ve been playing around with some of the beers lately, and by the sales of said beers, it has been well received by the brewers, barstaff and customers alike.

We’ve had Wheat Beers, Blondes, Pale Ales, Saisons and even Black IPA’s with various fruits such as Raspberry, Peach, Passionfruit, Cherry and Pineapple among others. For us, it’s a fun way of changing people’s perception of what beer can be. I have seen beer lovers, those new to beer, and people who have stated that they don’t like beer all enjoying them, which is great to see. I love seeing people who would normally only have spirits or wine start to embrace beer, and it’s all down to showing that there really is a beer for everyone!

Even a good friend of mine, who will stick exclusively to spirits apart from the very occasional time he has a mass produced lager (when it is free…), was seen buying multiple pints of the Passionfruit Pale Ale we had on at the Four Thieves.

First and foremost, these are beers that have an addition of fruit at either the conditioning stage in the fermenter or in the casks themselves during the secondary fermentation, not fruit drinks that have a bit of beer inside. There are many variables involved in this process. The amounts needed will always change, due to the type of fruit, the style of beer it’s going into and the ABV (Alcohol By Volume) of the beer itself. And like anything in brewing, sterilisation is vital. The last thing we want is for a well-made beer to be ruined due to the natural bacteria on fruit infecting it. A good way to counter that, for us, is by using natural fruit purees. These are sterilised and sealed up until use to avoid any nasties coming into contact with the beer.

And at the end of the day, it’s about beer being fun! We even had a batch of Blonde Ale at the North Laine Brewpub in Brighton that we split as half Blonde and half Fruit Blonde, with 4 different versions of the fruit so that people could vote on which was their favourite.

So come and have a try of these and our other beers at our four Brewpubs; North Laine in Brighton, Aeronaut in Acton, Four Thieves in Battersea and People’s Park Tavern in Hackney. We brewers are friendly folk, so feel free to have a chat if you see one of us!